Denis Villeneuve Narrates a Scene From ‘Blade Runner 2049’

“Blade Runner 2049” continues a story begun on the big screen 35 years ago. This scene is a simple one, with the detective K, played by Ryan Gosling, wandering through an abandoned city. But the director Denis Villeneuve makes it feel ominous. In the video, Mr. Villeneuve discussed his direction for Mr. Gosling (“Walk slower”) and in and interview, explained the significance of music used in the sequence. Here are excerpts from the conversation.

What is the music K hears near the end of the scene?

It’s a piece from Brahms in A flat (Op. 39 No. 15). I have a very intimate link with this waltz. It’s the oldest music I can remember that used to be played by my grandmother when I was a very young kid. And since the movie deals with memory, I wanted to put this personal touch somewhere.

How did you decide that he would come across bees?

There are a lot of problems with bees in the world right now. They are disappearing, so the fact that here you can see those creatures still alive and still present, was for me like a little spark of hope in this dystopian universe.

Could you talk about bathing the scene in this dusty yellow hue?

When my cinematographer, Roger Deakins, and I were thinking, O.K. we’re going to get out of Los Angeles and go into another city, we felt a huge responsibility. We thought, how can we stay in the aesthetic of “Blade Runner” in a different atmosphere? We had this idea of a city that has been victim of a nuclear blast, an abandoned city that would be under a blanket of yellow dust. This blanket would create that huge yellow haze over everywhere. The color yellow in the movie is very important. It’s a thread that main character is following slowly, and here, I wanted it to be like an explosion of this color surrounding the character, bringing a kind of dreamlike quality to the scene.